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Interstate Property ?

Many people, when they decide to start investing in property, for some reason have a default option and think straight away about investing in their local area.
Its almost like they have a physical desire to be close, so that they can check on the property.
One gentleman loudly described to us at an expo why he desired proximity to his investment.
It was for ease of fixing plumbing problems, which he did himself. 🙂

And many people seem to think that they just “know” their area better than other areas.
Which is intuitive but not very good from an investing angle.
Important issues like population growth,local vacancy rates, future demographic as well as infrastructure planning are the driving factors that should guide us to the locations we should invest in.

We often think we are basing our buying decisions on logic, but often its just an emotional decision which we then try and justify with logic and analysis.

We advise our clients that the best and safest way to invest is to diversify their portfolio across several different modalities which includes locations,positive geared and negative geared etc.
This lowers the probability of being deeply effected as localised conditions fluctuate.

Tax
Taxes can of course vary amongst states and stamp duty on a purchase can vary by large amounts of money.
For instance Victoria has the highest stamp duty in Australia at the moment across all states.

For owner occupiers in Queensland the stamp duty is low whilst for investors in the state, its quite high.
We have seen that state governments sometimes try and attract first time owners by varying different types of discounts on stamp duties.
Based on different levels of thresholds of course.

Given careful planing, it is possible to avoid paying land tax by making sure all the properties are in different states.
All states do have land tax at varying rates of course if the property is not your principal place of residence but their is a tax free component constrained by land values.

This varies from state to state but it is worth while researching carefully.

Conveyancing

Conveyancing is the process involved in the transfer of the legal title to real estate between two parties.
Settlement is the day on which the representatives of all parties, including any financiers, meet to exchange documents.
New South Wales has a mildly complicated process of contract exchange with a 10% deposit and 49 days to settlement.
Their is also variability in terms of cooling off periods.
Western Australia and Tasmania have no cooling off period in legislation.
Stamp duty is payable by the purchaser on all transfers of real estate in Tasmania with a few exceptions

Research

It is not feasible for investors to jump on a plane and rush off to research in person properties all over Australia.
Thats often the driving reason why people automatically seek areas to research that they can drive to.

The research angle, i.e. knowledge is where Ample Property Solutions comes into play.
We have unbiased information gleaned from our extensive contacts throughout the industry all over Australia.
And, people often find themselves looking at houses to invest in, with the mindset of thinking of it as a home to live in.
A house and a home are two different entities.

The problem of looking at photos on the net is obvious.
Most of the modern houses look pretty damn good when the photos are done by professionals.
Boots on the ground are required but it does not have to be your own boots !
And, our speciality for tax reasons is either a brand new property or an off the plan.

By sticking to this niche in the industry, and doing it well, we are seeing great returns for our clients Australia wide.
There is less chance of hidden surprises with new properties.
The other area we have not stepped into as yet are units, though we are seeing some demand from our clients for this type of investment.

But returning to our older property for instance.
The best bet, if you are thinking of moving forward would be to get a building and pest inspection.

If you have done all the due diligence yourself, or hired a company like ourselves for this, then there should be no problems.
Buying interstate can be easy if you take your time and get objective advise.

We are still seeing the media, in some quarters, writing negatively about property and saying it is not a safe form of investment.
This will always be the case.
If it bleeds let it lead is an old journalistic saying.
The media thrives on negative views.
During the last week I have read negative stories about the stockmarket, real estate and now bit coin.

Which leads to one simple question.
What else is their to invest in ?
Other than your own business, it does not leave a great deal.

At the end of the day, property moves in localised cycles.
To be able to jump into the right cycle at the right time and place requires expert knowledge.